Bredbandsbolaget Gets Breakthrough Contract with HSB

Swedish broadband company Bredbandsbolaget and HSB, the leading association for tenant-owned apartments, made an agreement targeting a potential market of half a million households.

The deal allows each local HSB association to decide if it wants to contract Bredbandsbolaget to supply a high-speed Internet connection at a low flat fee.

The move represents “a big step forward in the networking community” for HSB, which calls the deal a mark of how the workplace and the home are merging.

The agreement will give members a pricing guarantee for five years, according to Peter Larsen, CEO of HSB Sweden.

HSB members will get a high speed connection at 10 Mbps at the low monthly fee of SEK 200 (US$25), as well as 10 Mb of space for homepages, 5 e-mail addresses, and options for IP-phone, video on demand, TV channels and other services.

HSB had contacted other operators such as the government owned ISP and telco Telia regarding the deal, but eventually the monopoly lost this order to the younger and more aggressive Bredbandsbolaget.

The deal may have touched off a pricing war for future agreements with other associations and households. The day after the partnership was announced, Telia announced it would also supply high speed connections to households at the same price level.